FOUNDERS'  DAY  ADDRESSES 
(DREW  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY) 


BV 

4070 

.D74 

F68 

1903 


LIBRARY  OF  PRINCETON 


SEP  2  2  ^^^^ 


THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


BV  4070  .D74  F68  1903 
Drew  University.  Alumni 

Association. 
Founder's  day  addresses 


OUNDERS'  DAY 

ADDRESSES  ^  ^  ^ 


I*    ocr  27  190; 


C^ Delivered  on  the  occasion  of  the  observ- 
ance of  the  Thirty-fifth  Anniversary  of  the 
Founding  of  Drew  Theological  Seminary  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  the  i6th 
of    October,   igo2,    Madison,   New    Jersey. 


REW  THEOLOGICAL  SEMI- 
NARY was  opened  for  students  in 
1867.  Its  graduates  now,  after 
thirty-five  years,  number  about  a 
thousand,  and  are  to  be  found  in 
every  land. 

It  was  a  very  gracious  sugges- 
tion of  the  universally  loved  and 
honored  President  of  the  Seminary,  Rev.  Dr.  Henry  A. 
Buttz,  that  on  the  occasion  of  the  observance  of  the 
thirty-fifth  anniversary  of  the  founding  of  the  Seminary, 
the  exercises  be  under  the  direction  of  the  Alumni 
Association,  and  that  the  speakers  be  from  among  the 
rapidly  increasing  host  of  graduates.  The  men  chosen 
to  represent  this  goodly  company  of  faithful  ministers  of 
Jesus  Christ  were: 

Rev.  Henry  Graham,  D.D.,  a  member  of  the  first 
class  graduated  in  1869;  Rev.  John  D.  Hammond,  D.D., 
Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,  of  the  class  of  1875,  and  Rev. 
Charles  Fremont  Sitterly,  Ph.D.,  S.T.D.,  Professor  of 
Biblical  Literature  and  Exegesis  of  the  English  Bible, 
in  Drew  Theological  Seminary,  of  the  class  of  1886, 
who,  together  with  the  President  of  the  Seminary,  were 
the  speakers.  Founders'   Day,  October   16,  1903. 

The  addresses  which  they  delivered  on  that 
occasion  are  given  this  wider  hearing,  in  the  confident 
expectation  that  thereby  the  Kingdom  of  our  Lord  and 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ  will  be  advanced. 


EZRA    SQUIER    TIPPLE, 

President  Alumni  Association. 


New  York,  May,  1903. 


Address  of  Welcome  in  Behalf  of  the 
Faculty 


REV.    HENRY    A.    BUTTZ,    D.D., 
President  of  the  Seminary. 


WE  are  profoundly  grateful  to  the  Alumni  Association  for  their 
kindness  in  giving  us  their  presence,  and  in  providing  so  de- 
lightful and  profitable  a  program  for  this  occasion.  It  is  the 
thirty-fifth  anniversary  of  the  formal  opening  of  Drew 
Theological  Seminary,  and  as  such  it  was  deemed  by  the  Faculty  of 
sufficient  importance  to  ask  our  Alumni  to  take  it  into  their  charge  and 
to  make  all  the  arrangements  necessary  for  its  celebration.  For  the  readi- 
ness with  which  they  acceded  to  our  request,  and  for  the  successful  arrange- 
ments which  they  have  made,  I  desire,  on  behalf  of  the  Faculty,  to  give 
them  our  sincerest  thanks. 

It  would  have  been  a  pleasure  to  me  to  have  attempted  something 
of  a  review  of  the  history  of  the  Seminary  for  these  thirty-five  years, 
but  the  occasion  belongs  to  the  Alumni,  and  it  is  fitting  that  my  words 
should  be  few. 

The  sixth  day  of  November,  1867,  was  regarded  at  the  time,  and  is 
still  recognized,,  as  a  remarkable  day  in  the  history  of  Theological  educa- 
tion in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  At  that  time  there  were  assembled 
in  Madison  many  of  the  distinguished  men  of  our  Church  to  celebrate  the 
opening  of  Drew  Theological  Seminary.  The  gift  by  which  its  benevolent 
founder,  Mr.  Daniel  Drew,  established  it — half  a  million  of  dollars — was 
at  that  time  one  of  the  most  munificent  which  had  thus  far  been  given 
to  an  educational  institution.  The  widespread  publicity  which  had  been 
given  to  this  gift,  and  the  importance  of  the  movement  on  the  part  of  the 
Church  to  establish  near  the  city  of  New  York  a  Theological  Seminary, 
marked  the  event  as  an  historical  occasion.  The  morning  exercises  were 
held  in  the  Presbyterian  Church,  which  had  been  generously  tendered 
by  its  trustees  for  that  purpose.  The  afternoon  exercises  were  held  in 
Mead  Hall,  which,  at  that  time,  was  the  central  building,  and  the  place  in 
which,  until  quite  recently,  most  of  its  exercises  have  been  held. 

It  will  be  impossible  at  this  time  for  me  to  speak  in  any  adequate 
manner  of  the  progress  of  the  Seminary  in  building  or  equipment  during 
the  past  thirty-five  years.  Nor  may  I  attempt  to  give  credit  to  the  noble 
men  of  the  Faculty  and  board  of  trustees  who  have  made  the  Seminary 
what  it  is.  Names  historic  in  the  Church,  which  at  once  come  to  your 
minds,  have  wrought  here.     We  are  the  inheritors  of  the  struggles  and 


achievements  of  a  past  which  is  glorious  both  in  the  men  who  have 
labored  and  the  monuments  which  they  have  left  to  us. 

Since  the  founding  of  the  Seminary,  thirty-five  years  ago,  it  has 
touched,  in  a  measure,  the  whole  world.  One  thousand  men,  less  two, 
have  formally  graduated  from  the  institution  and  received  its  diploma. 
Over  four  hundred  have  taken  part  of  their  theological  course  here ;  so 
that,  during  this  period,  about  1,450  ministers,  or  about  one-twelfth  of 
the  ministry  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  have  pursued  their  studies 
in  this  Seminary  and  have  gone  forth  from  here  to  their  life  work.  The 
influence  which  has  thus  been  exerted  cannot  be  computed.  That  the 
Seminary  has  been  permitted  to  take  such  an  important  part  in  the  onward 
movement  of  the  Church  of  Christ  is  a  cause  of  profound  gratitude  to 
God. 

Although  we  have  not  thus  far  entered  the  field  for  additional  endow- 
ment in  the  interests  of  the  Twentieth  Century  Movement,  we  think  the 
time  for  hesitancy  has  now  passed. 

The  gift  of  ten  thousand  dollars  by  Mr.  J.  W.  Pearsall  during  the 
past  year,  to  establish  a  department  of  applied  Christianity  in  the  city  of 
New  York  in  connection  with  this  institution,  we  believe  is  a  pledge  of 
what  may  yet  be  done.  The  trustees  of  the  Seminary,  those  loyal  guardians 
of  its  interests — both  its  officers  and  its  members — are  in  hearty  sympathy 
with  the  effort  to  make  this  institution  worthy  of  the  age,  and  worthy  of  the 
Christ  in  whose  cause  we  toil.  Our  entrance  into  the  city  of  New  York 
for  special  study  in  sociological  and  philanthropic  interests,  which  has 
been  authorized  by  the  trustees,  marks,  we  believe,  a  new  era  in  the  history 
of  the  Seminary,  and  one  which  will  bind  us  more  closely  to  that  great 
metropolitan  city,  and  also  promote  the  larger  work  for  which  the  school 
has  been  established. 

It  is  customary  at  these  fall  gatherings  to  give  a  simple  statement  of  the 
past  year  of  the  institution.  With  our  last  class  we  graduated  fifty-six  in  the 
regular  course,  besides  those  who  went  out  having  pursued  special  courses 
in  the  Seminary.  During  the  past  twelve  months  twelve  students  have 
entered  the  foreign  missionary  service. 

We  have  received  for  this  term  about  seventy  new  students — with 
probably  more  to  come.  The  total  number  of  students  will  be  at  least  one 
hundred  and  eighty,  keeping  fully  up  to  our  last  year's  registration,  and, 
perhaps,  going  beyond. 

Dear  Brethren  of  the  Alumni :  We  welcome  your  presence  with  joy. 
You  are  the  product,  under  God,  of  the  Seminary's  past;  you  are  the 
hopes  of  its  future.  Upon  you,  we  who  labor  here  in  promoting  the 
interests  of  the  Seminary  largely  rest  for  its  future  advancement.  The 
loyalty  of  the  Alumni  to  the  institution  in  the  past  has  been  abundantly 
illustrated ;  no  more  loyal  body  of  men  to  the  service  of  the  school  can 
be  found.  We  rejoice  in  your  achievements;  in  the  positions  of  influence 
and  responsibility  into  which  you  have  come.  Worthily  you  have  borne 
the  burdens  of  the  Church  which  have  been  placed  upon  you.  Worthily 
you  will  bear  them  in  future  years.  You  are  to  represent  us  to  the  world. 
As  Paul  said  to  the  Corinthian  Christians :  "  Ye  are  our  epistle  written 


in  our  hearts,  known  and  read  of  all  men."  You  speak  for  us  by  your 
voice,  your  influence,  your  character. 

We  welcome  you  as  the  embodiment  of  the  Seminary  spirit.  There 
is  a  spirit  in  our  institution  which  constitutes  it  chief  value  to  the  Church. 
There  are  traditions  here  which  we  hold  in  precious  memory.  The  spirit 
which  animates  the  school  is  that  of  consecration  to  the  work  of  Christ. 
This  spirit,  we  believe,  fills  not  only  our  places  of  prayer  and  praise,  but 
fills  our  lecture  rooms  and  animates  the  teachings  of  our  Faculty.  This 
spirit  has  been  with  our  Faculty  from  the  beginning.  The  honored  names 
who  have  served  this  school  during  the  years  that  are  past  illustrate  it, 
and  I  assure  you  that  the  same  spirit  characterizes  the  Faculty  upon 
whose  shoulders  at  this  time  has  been  placed  the  responsibility  of  Drew 
Theological  Seminary.  The  men  who  now  fill  these  chairs  are  worthy 
successors  of  the  men  who  filled  them  in  the  past.  Noble  men  have  toiled 
here.  Great  sacrifices  have  been  made  here.  Great  lives  have  been  lived 
and  inspired  here,  but  we  need  a  fresh  impulse  which  we  hope  to  come  to 
us  from  this  day. 

We  give  cordial  welcome  then  on  this  auspicious  day  to  the  Alumni  of 
the  Seminary.  Thirty-five  years  of  history  affords  a  fitting  time  for 
such  a  gathering.  The  graduates  of  this  Seminary  are  found  in  the  East 
and  in  the  West,  in  the  North  and  in  the  South.  They  are  found  in  the 
educational  fields  and  mission  fields  of  the  Church;  in  official  and  in  the 
pastoral  life,  and,  we  believe,  they  have  secured  the  confidence  of  the 
Church  by  their  loyalty  to  their  work  and  to  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

In  all  our  aspirations  and  expectations  you  form,  my  dear  brethren,  a 
central  part.  Without  you  we  cannot  succeed.  With  you,  and  the  blessing 
of  God,  success  is  assured.  A  thousand  welcomes  to  you,  then,  on  this 
joyous  occasion. 


God's  Unusual  Men  for  Unusual  Work 


HENRY    GRAHAM,   D.D., 
Albany,  N.  Y. 


GOD  chooses  men  for  special  work,  and  has  done  so  in  all  ages. 
And  they  are  fortunate  men  to  whom  God  gives  a  big  task.  They 
are  God's  men — doing  the  great  things  that  he  wants  done  on 
earth. 

There  is  no  such  honor  as  to  be  trusted  by  God  with  a  big  task,  and 
backed  by  God  while  doing  it. 

God  has  chosen  unusual  men  in  all  ages  to  do  unusual  things. 

It  needs  an  unusual  man  to  do  unusual  things ;  and  God's  man  is 
always  an  unusual  man. 

The  old  prophets  were  unusual  men,  having  experiences,  and  doing 
deeds  outside  of  the  ordinary.  God  selected  them,  and  assigned  them  their 
tasks. 

John  the  Baptist  was  preeminently  God's  man,  chosen  and  endowed 
for  a  special  and  great  work,  outside  the  range  of  ordinary  human  ex- 
perience. 

The  apostles  were  unusual  men,  upon  whom  extraordinary  responsi- 
bilities were  laid. 

Luther  was  God's  unusual  man,  chosen  to  do  a  great  and  unusual 
work.    The  world  may  never  see  another  like  him. 

Wesley  was  one  of  God's  unusual  men,  to  whom  a  great  task  was  com- 
mitted, and  he  justified  the  confidence  which  God  reposed  in  him. 

God's  choice  of  men  for  unusual  work  is  not  limited  to  ministers, 
although  every  minister  chosen  of  God  for  His  work  ought  to  be  an 
unusual  man. 

George  Washington  was  God's  chosen  man  for  a  special  work  in  the 
world's  history. 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  most  manifestly  God's  chosen  man  for  a  great 
and  terrible  crisis,  and  a  man  who  more  conscientiously  and  faithfully 
did  God's  work  has  not  appeared  in  human  history. 

God  puts  His  spirit  on  men  in  other  spheres,  and  singles  them  out  for 
unusual  work. 

Mr.  Moody  cut  loose  from  the  ordinary  in  early  manhood,  and  did 
some  of  the  unusual  work  that  God  wants  done. 

Many  more  in  various  avocations  have  been  selected  by  God  to  step 
out  of  the  humdrum  path  of  life  to  meet  experiences  and  do  work  from 
which  others  are  excused. 


In  all  these  cases  there  will  be  two  marks  by  which  we  can  distinguish 
the  genuine  from  the  counterfeit. 

First,  they  will  be  markedly  God  chosen.  There  will  be  an  impulse 
to  their  work  which  they  clearly  recognize  as  coming  from  God. 

And  second,   the  work  to  which  they  are  impelled  will  be  peculiarly 
work  that  God  wants  done. 

And  unusual  men  are  needed  to-day  as  much  as  ever.  Some  unusual 
things  greatly  need  to  be  done,  and  it  will  need  unusual  men  to  do  them. 

Three  things  can  safely  be  said  about  the  unusual  work  that  God 
wants  done  and  the  unusual  men  who  are  to  do  it. 

1.  First,  men  must  not  undertake  this  unusual  work  until  God  bids 
them  do  so.  A  man  cannot  be  a  great  man  and  do  a  great  task  simply 
because  he  wants  to  do  so.  Men  have  appointed  themselves  to  the  office  of 
Messiah.  The  fifth  chapter  of  the  book  of  Acts  gives  us  an  account  of 
some  who  called  themselves  to  this  lofty  position,  but  they  were  "  brought 
to  naught."  In  all  subsequent  ages  men  have  made  the  same  attempt,  with 
the  same  result.  Even  in  our  own  times  persons  are  advertising  them- 
selves as  Christ  Jesus,  and  gaining  some  followers. 

Don't  try  to  be  an  apostle,  unless  God  marks  that  out  as  your  destiny. 

Don't  try  to  be  a  prophet,  and  foretell  future  events,  until  the  Divine 
Spirit  comes  upon  you. 

Don't  try  to  write  a  new  Bible  until  God  inspires  you  to  that  work. 

Don't  try  to  revise  the  Bible  we  have  until  you  are  satisfied,  beyond 
any  possible  doubt,  that  God  has  marked  out  that  great  task  for  you. 

Don't  try  to  reform  Christianity  unless  God  bids  you  do  so. 

Don't  try  to  establish  a  new  church  in  the  earth.  There  are  a  great 
many  churches  now. 

Don't  try  to  organize  a  new  religion  for  the  times.  When  God  wants 
a  new  religion  for  the  times.  He  will  establish  it  in  a  way  that  men  will 
not  mistake. 

Don't  try  to  be  a  second  Luther.    Don't  try  to  be  a  second  Wesley. 

Don't  try  to  be  a  great  man,  and  do  unusual  things,  simply  because 
some  other  man  was  great,  and  did  unusual  things. 

Don't  try  to  preach  the  Gospel  until  God  calls  you  to  that  great  work. 
All  this  is  dangerous  presumption. 

To  attempt  these  unusual  things  in  cold  blood  is  to  invite  failure. 
There  must  be  unusual  inspiration  for  unusual  tasks. 

2.  The  second  thing  that  may  be  said  is  that  men  can  safely  undertake 
the  unusual  when  God  bids  them  do  so.  If  they  may  not  go  till  they  are 
sent,  they  may  go  when  they  are  sent.  It  is  always  safe  to  undertake  what 
God  tells  them  to  undertake.    God  will  see  them  through. 

Moses,  you  remember,  shrank  from  his  task  and  said,  "  Who  am  I,  that 
I  should  go  unto  Pharaoh,  and  that  I  should  bring  forth  the  children  of 
Israel  out  of  Egypt?"  But  God  said,  "Certainly  I  will  be  with  thee." 
When  they  tried  to  silence  Amos  the  prophet,  he  answered :  "  I  was  no 
prophet,  neither  was  I  a  prophet's  son ;  but  I  was  a  herdman,  and  a 
gatherer  of  sycamore  fruit ;  and  the  Lord  took  me  as  I  followed  the 
flocks,  and  the  Lord  said  unto  me,  Go,  prophesy  unto  my  people  Israel. 

10 


Now,  therefore,  hear  thou  the  word  of  the  Lord."    God's  prophets  must 
assert  themselves,  and  not  let  men  push  them  aside. 

The  Czar  of  Russia  offered  $30,000  for  the  best  portrait  of  himself,  and 
nearly  a  thousand  pictures  were  offered.  When  the  committee  were  hang- 
ing the  pictures  in  the  gallery  they  noticed  a  picture  leaning  against  a 
post.  One  of  them  said :  "  There  is  no  use  hanging  that  daub."  I  beg 
your  pardon,"  said  the  artist,  who  was  watching  over  the  fate  of  his  picture ; 
"  I  painted  that  picture,  and  I  claim  the  privilege  of  hanging  it  in  the  proper 
light,  and  at  the  proper  distance,  and  then  you  can  judge  of  it."  The  com- 
mittee saw  the  justice  of  his  demands,  and  hung  the  picture  to  good  ad- 
vantage, and  when  the  award  was  given  that  picture  took  the  prize. 

God's  prophets  must  assert  themselves,  whoever  may  oppose. 

Bishop  Fowler  begins  his  great  lecture  on  Abraham  Lincoln  with  the 
sentence:  "God's  prophets  have  the  right  of  way." 

I  have  already  spoken  of  that  great  man  as  God's  man,  chosen  for  a 
great  crisis. 

He  knew  that  God  chose  him  for  his  work,  and  that  God  was  behind 
him,  and  that  was  "  the  hiding  of  his  power."    He  knew  it. 

General  Daniel  E.  Sickles  tells  an  incident  that  lets  us  into  the  very 
secret  of  Lincoln's  heart. 

"  It  was  on  the  fifth  day  of  July,  1863,"  said  General  Sickles,  "  that  I 
was  brought  to  Washington  on  a  stretcher  from  the  field  of  Gettysburg. 
Hearing  of  my  arrival,  President  Lincoln  came  to  my  room  and  sat  down 
by  my  bedside.  He  asked  about  the  great  battle,  and  when  I  told  him 
of  the  terrible  slaughter  the  tears  streamed  from  his  eyes.  I  asked  him 
if  he  had  doubted  the  result.  He  said  'No.'  Then  he  continued:  'This 
may  seem  strange  to  you,  but  a  few  days  ago,  when  the  opposing  armies 
were  converging,  I  felt  as  never  before  my  utter  helplessness  in  the  great 
crisis  that  was  to  come  upon  the  country.  I  went  into  my  room  and 
locked  the  door. 

Then  I  knelt  down  and  prayed  as  I  had  never  prayed  before.  I  told 
God  that  He  had  called  me  to  this  position;  that  I  had  done  all  that  I 
could  do,  and  that  the  result  was  now  in  His  hands;  that  I  felt  my  own 
weakness  and  lack  of  power,  and  that  I  knew  that  if  the  country  was  to  be 
saved,  it  was  because  He  willed  it  so. 

"  '  When  I  went  down  to  my  room  I  felt  that  there  could  be  no  doubt 
of  the  issue.  The  burden  seemed  to  have  rolled  off  my  shoulders,  my  intense 
anxiety  was  relieved,  and  in  its  place  came  a  great  sense  of  trustfulness, 
and  that  was  why  I  did  not  doubt  the  result  at  Gettysburg.  And  what  is 
more.  Sickles,'  he  continued,  '  I  believe  that  we  may  hear  at  any  moment 
of  a  great  success  by  General  Grant,  who  has  been  pegging  away  at 
Vicksburg  for  so  many  months.  By  to-morrow  you  will  hear  that  he 
has  won  a  victory  as  important  in  the  West  as  Gettysburg  is  in  the  East.' 

"  Then  turning  to  me,  he  said :  '  Sickles,  I  am  in  a  prophetic  mood  to- 
day, and  I  know  that  you  will  get  well.' 

"  The  doctors  do  not  give  me  that  hope,  Mr.  President,  I  said ;  but  he 
answered  cheerfully,  '  I  know  you  will  get  well.  Sickles.' " 

We  all  know  that  Lincoln's  prophecies  of  that  day  came  true.    The  next 

II 


day  brought  the  news  of  the  fall  of  Vicksburg,  and  General  Sickles  is  yet 
living :  and  the  world  is  beginning  to  recognize  the  fact  that  this  great  man 
cheerfully  undertook  the  great  task  that  God  imposed  upon  him.  and  in  all 
those  trying  times  worked  under  Divine  direction. 

When  God  bids  men  undertake  some  unusual  work  for  Him.  they  need 
not — they  must  not  hesitate.  Obedience  urges  them  forward.  Loyalty  to 
God  enjoins  it,  and  His  command  is  a  guarantee  of  success. 

Whittier,  the  prophet-poet  of  our  country,  in  his  poem  on  Ezekiel,  says : 

"  Yet  shrink  not  thou,  whoe'er  thou  art, 
For  God's  great  purpose  set  apart, 
Before  whose  far-discerning  eyes. 
The  future  as  the  present  lies ! 
Beyond  a  narrow-bounded  age 
Stretches  thy  prophet-heritage. 
Through  heaven's  dim  spaces  angel-trod, 
And  through  the  eternal  years  of  God  ! 
Thy  audience,  worlds ! — All  things  to  be 
The  witness  of  the  truth  in  thee !  " 

It  is  disastrous  to  hesitate  when  God  calls  us  to  the  unusual.  Men 
have  rejected  a  call  to  preach,  and  mourned  over  it  all  their  lives.  Laymen 
have  neglected  some  great  opportunity,  and  never  been  happy  afterward. 

3.  One  thing  more.  Men  may  ask  for  an  invitation  to  do  something 
of  consequence.  There  is  no  harm  in  doing  so.  Peter  said :  "  Bid  me  come 
unto  Thee  on  the  water ;"  Christ  answered,  "  Come."  and  Peter  got  an  ex- 
perience quite  out  of  the  ordinary. 

The  apostle  says,  "  Covet  earnestly  the  best  gifts."  Perhaps  men  will 
not  get  them  if  they  do  not  covet  them,  but  it  will  do  no  harm  to  try. 
Not  every  one  is  capable  of  unusual  experiences,  but  perhaps  you  are,  and 
it  is  worth  while  to  put  it  to  the  test. 

Modesty  is  an  excellent  virtue,  but  men  must  not  let  it  keep  them  from 
doing  what  they  are  capable  of  doing. 

Peter  was  not  noted  for  his  modesty.  He  was  ready  for  anything,  and 
God  accepted  him  for  large  things. 

David  was  not  noted  for  his  modesty.  While  the  army  of  Israel  was 
shivering  in  the  presence  of  the  giant  Goliath,  this  young  man  said:  "  Thy 
servant  will  go  and  fight  with  this  Philistine ;"  and  God  took  him  at  his 
own  estimate  and  gave  him  the  victory. 

The  men  who  do  great  things  are  the  men  who  are  looking  for  great 
tasks.  A  man  seldom  does  a  great  thing  by  accident.  The  man  of  genius 
is  generally  the  man  who  has  a  genius  for  God  and  hard  work. 

The  great  inventors  were  generally  looking  for  the  things  they  found. 
The  men  who  discover  new  planets  and  comets  are  they  who  sit  long  nights 
at  the  little  end  of  the  telescope. 

Faith  in  God  must  be  supplemented  by  faith  in  ourselves,  if  we  ever 
accomplish  much.  A  man  never  does  any  great  thing  unless  he  thinks  he 
can;  and  the  man  to  whom  God  has  committed  a  great  task  has  a  right  to 
believe  that  he  can  accomplish  something.  God's  appointment  is  a 
guarantee  of  his  ability.    To  doubt  himself  is  to  doubt  God. 

12 


Let  men  fit  themselves  for  something,  and  stand  readj- — and  see  what 
will  come  of  it.  God  wants  men — great  men,  men  He  can  trust,  men  who 
will  undertake  great  things  for  Him,  men  He  can  give  a  great  task,  and 
depend  on  them  to  do  it. 

And  He  has  generally  chosen  trained  men  for  the  greatest  undertakings. 
The  two  great  characters  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  who  molded 
Judaism  and  Christianity — Moses  and  Paul — were  both  trained  men. 

In  two  great  crises  of  the  history  of  the  church  two  great  men  arose — 
Luther  and  Wesley — both  thoroughly  trained  men. 

Men  must  get  ready  for  the  unusual.  It  is  more  apt  to  come  if  they 
get  ready. 

The  great  explosion  that  deepened  the  channel  of  the  East  River  is 
not  forgotten  history.  General  Newton  worked  for  many  long  years  placing 
explosives  in  the  bed  of  the  river,  and  when  all  was  ready  it  was  only  the 
work  of  a  moment  to  deepen  the  channel.  He  was  simply  storing  up  divine 
power  for  a  great  explosion — when  all  was  ready.  And  then  something 
unusual  happened.  We  have  plenty  of  small  explosions.  The  Fourth  of 
July  is  made  boisterous  by  them.  Cannon  are  fired,  and  rocks  are  blasted 
everywhere;  but  this  was  the  great  explosion  of  the  century.  And  it 
followed  long  years  of  preparation. 

May  we  not  lay  our  plans  to  do  something  for  God  that  is  worth  while, 
and  see  what  He  will  do  with  us?  But  we  must  stand  ready  for  any- 
thing— any  hardships,  any  storms. 

If  you  want  to  draw  lightning  from  the  skies,  go  out  into  the  storm, 
and  send  up  a  kite  as  Franklin  did. 

It  may  not  strike  you  if  you  do  this,  but  it  is  more  apt  to  do  so  than  if 
you  climb  onto  an  insulated  table  in  a  back  room,  with  blinds  closed  and 
doors  locked. 

If  you  want  divine  power  to  do  something  unusual,  stretch  your  hands 
heavenward  for  it.    Don't  hide  from  it,  but  invite  it. 

Too  many  do  not  put  themselves  in  the  way  of  divine  power.  They 
do  not  dare  to  go  where  the  unusual  happens.  God  can  never  use  for  any 
unusual  purpose  those  who  are  afraid  of  storms,  and  hardships,  and 
burdens. 

The  great  men  whom  God  has  used  for  great  things  were  not  relieved 
from  the  hardest  experiences. 

I  have  already  referred  to  Peter.     His  life  was  full  of  the  unusual. 

He  preached  at  Pentecost,  and  three  thousand  were  converted.  That 
was  unusual.  I  would  that  we  had  such  unusual  meetings  to-day.  We  need 
such  preachers.     We  need  such  hearers. 

Peter  spoke  before  the  household  of  Cornelius,  and  the  Holy  Ghost 
fell  on  all  them  that  heard  the  word.  That  was  unusual ;  and  I  wish  we 
might  have  the  same  results  to-day.  We  surely  need  preachers  who  can 
command  divine  power  after  this  fashion ;  and  we  also  need  hearers  who 
will  respond  to  it  after  this  fashion. 

The  report  comes  down  to  us  that  Peter  suffered  himself  to  be  crucified, 
head  downward,  rather  than  deny  his  Lord.  We  do  not  know  whether  this 
tradition  is  true  or  not ;  but  it  is  an  unusual  thing  to  have  such  a  report  get 

13 


out  about  a  man,  whether  true  or  otherwise.  There  must  have  been  some- 
thing unusual  about  the  man.  The  most  of  us  will  never  be  troubled  with 
any  such  traditions.  We  are  too  ordinary — too  commonplace  for  any  such 
experience. 

And  yet  such  men  are  needed  to-day  as  much  as  in  the  days  of  the 
apostles — men  who  will  dare  and  do  anything  for  Christ's  cause. 

A  story  comes  down  to  us  from  the  early  ages  of  Christianity,  which 
Gibbon  dignified  with  a  place  in  his  history. 

When  Christianity  was  struggling  for  the  mastery  over  the  barbarism 
of  the  Roman  empire,  an  unusual  man  flashed  for  a  moment  on  the  scene, 
and  did  an  unusual  thing,  which  produced  unusual  results  for  the  cause  of 
Christ.  Christianity  was  already  the  accepted  religion  of  the  empire,  but 
the  cruel  amusements  of  the  Colosseum  had  not  yet  been  abolished. 

After  a  victory  over  the  Goths,  the  Romans  met  for  a  gladiatorial 
show  in  the  arena,  where  men  were  put  up  to  butcher  each  other  "  to  make 
a  Roman  holiday."  The  exhibition  had  commenced,  and  the  gladiators 
were  advancing  toward  each  other  with  drawn  swords,  when  a  rude, 
roughly-clad,  bareheaded,  barefooted  man  rushed  in  between  them  and 
called  on  the  people  to  cease  shedding  innocent  blood,  and  not  to  requite 
God's  mercy  to  them  by  murder. 

But  the  people  shouted,  "  Back,  old  man ;  on,  gladiators ;  "  and  the  old 
man  was  pushed  aside. 

He  stood  his  ground,  however,  and  exhorted  them  to  cease  from  sin, 
until  the  people  and  the  rulers  all  shouted,  "  Down  with  him ! " 

Then  the  gladiators  struck  him  down,  and  the  people  showered  stones 
upon  him,  until  he  lay  dead  in  the  midst  of  the  arena. 

After  this  the  people  had  leisure  to  look,  and  they  saw  that  he  wore  the 
hermit's  garb,  and  they  knew  that  they  had  murdered  one  of  God's 
courageous  saints,  who  had  been  inspired  to  cry  out  in  an  unusual  manner 
against  a  great  sin. 

And  from  that  day,  the  record  tells  us,  there  were  no  more  contests  in 
the  arena  at  Rome,  and  these  bloody  exhibitions  were  soon  abolished  all 
over  the  empire. 

In  like  manner  Savonarola  cried  out  against  the  evils  of  his  day  in  the 
streets  of  Florence,  and  met  a  similar  fate. 

There  are  great  evils  to-day  that  need  crying  against  unto  the  death — 
crying  against  in  a  way  that  will  startle  polite  society — evils  that  will  not 
go  out  but  by  prayer  and  fasting,  and  something  out  of  the  ordinary.  And 
it  calls  for  unusual  men  to  do  such  work. 

God  has  unusual  work  that  needs  to  be  done  in  these  days — as  in  all 
days — and  whether  we  are  the  ones  who  can  do  this  work,  He  only  knows. 

We  can  at  least  be  ready,  and  the  man  who  is  ready  usually  gets  the 
job.  The  stone  that  killed  Goliath  was  not  the  first  stone  that  David  had 
thrown. 

There  is  no  suggestion  in  all  this  that  preachers  of  the  Gospel  indulge  in 
sensation — cheap  sensation. 

God  does  not  employ  mountebanks  to  do  his  unusual  work. 

14 


I  only  suggest  that  men  make  the  most  of  themselves  for  God  and  His 
truth. 

The  best  work  of  the  Christian  ministry  is  unusual  enough  to  satisfy  the 
holiest  and  loftiest  ambition. 

It  is  surely  enough  in  the  time  of  old  age  to  look  back  over  a  ministry 
that  has  led  several  hundreds,  perhaps  some  thousands,  of  persons  to 
forsake  sin  and  lead  holy  lives.  There  is  nothing  ordinary  about  that. 
And  how  it  cheers  the  declining  years  of  a  man  of  seventy  to  have  a  Chris- 
tian woman  now  and  then  say :  "  Thirty,  forty  years  ago  you  said  some- 
thing which  led  me  to  consecrate  myself  to  God  anew,  and  I  have  been  a 
better  Christian  ever  since " ;  or  to  hear  some  strong  man  say :  "  Many 
years  ago  some  words  of  yours  led  me  to  accept  God's  call  to  preach  the 
Gospel." 

There  are  some  lofty  compensations  in  these  things  for  small  salaries, 
many  hardships,  and  much  unjust  criticism.  The  Christian  minister  ought 
to  be  the  proudest,  happiest  man  on  earth. 

The  students  of  this  Seminary  have  had  the  rare  opportunity,  from  its 
earliest  history,  of  coming  into  close  personal  touch  with  some  unusual 
men,  and  this  is  as  grand  an  institution  as  there  is  on  earth  for  finding 
unusual  men  and  setting  them  at  work  for  God.  Some  unusual  men  have 
already  gone  out  from  this  Seminary,  and  I  trust  God  will  send  out  many 
more  to  do  His  great  work. 


An  Educated  Ministry  and  Christian 
Education 


JOHN  D.  HAMMOND,  D.D., 
Nashville,  Tenn. 


WE  are  here  to  celebrate  Founders'  Day.  Though  not  present  when 
the  great  work  we  are  commemorating  was  done,  it  was  my  privi- 
lege to  know  Drew  Seminary  intimately  for  three  years  shortly 
after  its  foundation  and  to  become  the  seventy-ninth  Alumnus  on 
a  roll  which  now  numbers  998.  I  am  tempted  to  spend  the  time 
allotted  to  me  in  reminiscences  strongly  tinctured  with  egotism.  A  host  of 
memories  come  thronging  upon  me  at  this  time  which  are  connected  with 
the  early  history  of  Drew,  and  which  are  hard  to  be  resisted.  Considering 
myself  as  a  type  (and  the  more  unworthy  the  type  the  better)  it  may  not  be 
unappropriate  for  me  to  narrate  how  Drew  Seminary  found  me  and  some- 
thing of  what  it  did  for  me. 

In  the  fall  of  1871  I  was  appointed  to  the  Roswell  Circuit  in  the  North 
Georgia  Conference.  This  circuit  covered  the  two  large  counties  of  Cobb 
and  Milton.  The  chief  distinction  of  the  former  is  that  it  is  said  to  have 
been  the  home  of  President  Roosevelt's  mother  in  her  young  days.  Though 
in  possession  of  an  A.B.  diploma  from  the  university  of  my  native  State,  I 
had  received  no  training  in  Bible  study,  and  knew  scarcely  anything  of 
Church  history  or  of  the  science  and  art  of  preaching  and  pastoral  work. 
Though  my  ministry  was  to  a  plain  country  people,  I  felt  a  painful  lack  of 
such  training  and  knowledge  as  were  needed  in  order  to  do  them  fair 
service  as  a  Christian  teacher.  My  compensation  was  not  such  as  to  justify 
me  in  providing  myself  with  necessary  intellectual  helps.  Of  the  seven 
churches  composing  the  circuit  some  were  small  houses  built  of  logs,  while 
others  were  country  school  houses  borrowed  for  the  monthly  Sunday  ser- 
vice. At  one,  a  parishioner  and  leading  steward  surprised  me  at  my  first 
appointment  by  cantering  briskly  up  to  the  door  on  the  back  of  an  ox  all 
bridled  and  saddled.  I  afterward  learned  that  his  remarkable  ox  was 
equally  at  home  between  the  shafts  of  the  family  buggy.  Amidst  such  sur- 
roundings I  began  my  ministry  with  only  such  preparation  for  public 
speaking  as  had  been  gotten  by  a  few  timid  efforts  to  escape  fines  at  my 
college  society  by  filling  my  place  on  the  debate.  My  college  training, 
though  of  much  value  in  the  long  run,  was  of  but  little  practicable  ad- 
vantage to  me  in  the  beginning,  so  far  as  I  could  see.  The  feeling  of 
need  for  special  training  grew  on  me  and  became  oppressive  as  the  weeks 
and  months  rolled  by,  until  one  day  my  eyes  fell  on  a  notice  in  my  Con- 

17 


ference  paper,  signed  by  Dr.  Charles  F.  Deems,  in  which  it  was  proposed  to 
give  a  scholarship  at  Drew  Seminary  to  some  young  man  of  specified 
qualifications  from  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  South.  I  lost  no  time 
in  applying.  In  this  I  met  with  discouragement  from  older  ministers,  most 
of  whom  held  that  the  true  preparation  for  preaching  was  preaching,  and 
that  the  way  to  learn  how  to  do  a  thing  was  to  do  it,  profiting  by  mis- 
takes and  advancing  by  experience.  While  waiting  to  hear  from  my 
application  I  attended  the  Conference  of  my  district,  and  heard  inspiring 
sermons  from  the  Bishop  who  presided,  and  from  others,  and  felt  the 
revival  spirit  which  rested  on  the  Conference.  The  result  was  that  I  re- 
turned to  my  circuit  feeling  that  I  could  preach  and  that  perhaps,  after  all, 
my  desire  for  a  theological  education  was  prompted  more  by  scholastic 
ambition  than  by  a  love  for  souls.  My  mind  was  fully  made  up  to  with- 
draw my  application,  but  just  then  a  good  Providence  settled  the  matter 
for  me  beyond  all  question.  On  my  study  table  I  found  a  letter  from  Dr. 
Deems,  stating  that  out  of  a  list  of  many  applicants  my  name  had  been 
selected.  I  was  cordially  received  at  the  Seminary.  Bishop  Foster,  though 
recently  elected  to  the  Episcopacy,  was  still  serving  as  professor.  Presi- 
dent Hurst  was  at  that  time  just  being  recognized  throughout  the  Church, 
North  and  South,  by  reason  of  his  broad  Christian  scholarship.  He  was 
one  of  the  most  popular  and  beloved  teachers  I  had  ever  known.  His 
gentleness  and  strength  combined  not  only  to  win  to  him  all  hearts,  but 
also  to  give  him  dominion  over  all  minds.  They  have  been  providentially 
reproduced  by  the  man  who  was  at  that  time  Instructor  in  Hebrew  and 
New  Testament  Greek,  who  afterward  became  his  successor,  and  whose 
long  and  successful  administration  has  been  a  chief  factor  in  making  Drew 
Theological  Seminary  one  of  the  strongest  evangelical  centers  of  ministerial 
training  known  to  modern  times. 

My  experiences  at  Drew  broke  down  provincial  prejudices  which  were 
the  unavoidable  results  of  my  early  and  limited  surroundings.  It  was  here 
that  I  learned  to  know  "  no  North  and  no  South "  in  Christ's  kingdom. 
What  men  and  women  there  were  to  teach  me  the  Christian  tolerance  I  so 
much  needed  to  learn !  First  and  foremost  were  my  teachers  and  my  fellow 
students ;  then  those  noble  women  of  the  McClintock  Association,  such  as 
Mrs.  Julia  Sewell  and  Mrs.  Clinton  B.  Fisk ;  those  princely  laymen,  such  as 
Mr.  Joseph  S.  Spinney,  Mr.  George  J.  Ferry,  and  General  Fisk;  those 
Christly  pastors  the  Tuttles,  father  and  son,  Drs.  Burr  and  Landon,  and 
many  others  whose  names  can  not  be  mentioned  here.  Especially  helpful  to 
me  were  my  associates  amongst  the  students.  These  men  received  me  as  a 
brother  beloved.  I  can  not  forget  my  first  experience  meeting  with  one  of 
them.  It  was  after  a  Sunday  evening's  service  when,  lonely  and  home- 
sick, we  had  drifted  together,  and  he  proposed  a  walk.  He  said :  "  I  had 
been  taught  from  childhood  to  regard  all  slave-holding  Southerners  as 
coarse  and  immoral ;  I  now  confess  my  fault  and  express  my  joy  at  hav- 
ing come  to  know  at  least  one,  whom  I  take  as  a  type  of  the  many,  whom 
I  can  respect  and  love  as  a  Christian  brother."  Then  came  the  counter  con- 
fession :  "  As  the  son  of  a  Southern  slave-holder,  left  destitute  by  the  for- 
tunes of  war,  with  the  old  homestead  in  ashes,  I  had  come  to  look  upon 

i8 


all  Northern  people  as  fanatics  and  self-constituted  regulators  of  other 
people's  affairs;  but  I  now  acknowledge  my  fault  and  express  my  joy  at 
having  come  to  know  one,  whom  I  take  as  the  type  of  the  many,  and  whom 
I  can  respect  and  love  as  a  Christian  brother."  We  were  thus  drawn  to- 
gether, became  room-mates,  and  have  since  met  with  nothing  to  interfere 
with  a  true  and  lifelong  friendship. 

God's  ways  are  not  our  ways.  High  on  His  throne  in  the  heavens, 
above  all  human  prejudice  and  strife,  He  beholds  the  children  of  men  and 
considers  their  deepest  needs.  The  land  was  still  bleeding  and  the  two 
great  branches  of  Methodism  being  in  strained  relations  to  each  other  were 
disqualified,  thus  far,  for  their  mission  of  "  peace  on  earth  and  good  will 
to  men."  He  did  not  seek  to  heal  the  breach  by  bringing  together  two 
great  opposing  councils,  each  stiff  with  dignity  and  bristling  with  un- 
answerable arguments,  but  he  picked  up  a  crude,  awkward  circuit  preacher 
of  a  slave-holding  ancestry,  out  of  the  bloody  vestiges  of  the  horrible  car- 
nage about  Atlanta,  set  him  down  by  the  side  of  a  fire-eating  abolitionist 
from  a  Northern  State  and  said,  "  Be  class-mates,  room-mates,  friends ; 
and,  in  learning  to  respect  and  love  each  other,  learn  also  that  larger 
respect  and  love  which  become  the  opposing  sections  of  a  common  country 
and  a  common  Church."  Thus  was  He  content  to  sow,  in  humble  soil,  the 
seeds  of  a  great  purpose  and  to  wait  patiently  for  the  harvest. 

In  each  of  my  professors,  as  if  by  instinct,  I  discerned  that  broad  catho- 
licity and  that  patient  and  gentle  bearing  toward  the  ignorant  and  the 
erring,  both  as  regards  individuals  and  sections,  which  have  ever  been 
characteristic  of  this  Institution.  I  did  not  at  the  time  fully  appreciate  the 
influence  of  such  lives  as  those  of  Foster,  Hurst,  Strong,  Miley,  Kidder, 
and  Buttz ;  but  as  I  have  watched  their  widening  and  deepening  influence, 
and  that  of  their  worthy  successors,  on  the  Church  during  the  large  part  of 
the  last  half  century,  operating  through  the  ministry  of  a  thousand  Alumni, 
and  of  a  nearly  equal  number  of  such  as  came  but  could  not  remain  to  com- 
plete the  course,  I  have  come  to  look  upon  them  as  master  workmen  set 
apart  for  the  building  up  of  Christ's  kingdom  in  this  land.  Of  all  the 
goodly  company  of  those  whom  I  knew,  at  least  by  sight,  of  the  founders 
of  Drew  Seminary,  I  will  not  omit  to  mention  Mr.  Daniel  Drew  himself.  I 
remember  him  as  he  sat  during  one  commencement  occasion  by  the  side  of 
the  now  Sainted  Bishop  Janes,  too  modest  to  take  any  part  beyond  that  of 
a  silent  spectator  of  the  great  and  growing  work  which  his  liberality  had 
set  in  motion.  He  was  a  man  of  rugged  character.  It  took  a  great  nature 
to  be  able  to  see,  thirty-five  years  ago,  the  propriety  of  putting  half  a 
million  dollars  into  an  institution  for  the  education  of  Methodist  ministers. 
When  we  reflect  that  Mr.  Drew  was  not  what  we  should  now  call  an 
educated  man,  that  his  vast  fortune  had  been  won  by  hard  struggling 
against  unceasing  financial  foes,  and  that  the  tide  of  educational  beneficence 
had  not  set  in  in  his  day,  we  are  filled  with  admiration  for  the  faith  which 
prompted  his  great  gift. 

In  all  these  succeeding  years  one  thing  more  than  all  others  has  been 
increasingly  manifest,  and  that  is  that  Methodism,  more,  perhaps,  than 
any  other  Church,  is  obligated  to  make  this  nation  Christian,  and  that  to 

19 


do  so  she  must  bring  to  bear  on  it  all  the  power  which  will  result  from 
union — not  only  union  within  her  own  borders,  but  union,  offensively  and 
defensively,  with  every  Christian  force  in  the  land.  So  far  as  Methodism 
herself  is  concerned,  it  is  not  an  impossible  task  to  bring  about  this  union. 
It  may  take  the  form  of  organic  union  or  of  federation  or  of  a  triple  al- 
liance. Which  it  shall  take  is  not  for  me  to  say  at  this  time.  From  its 
foundation  this  government  has  been  plainly  intended  by  Providence  to 
stand  out  amongst  the  nations  of  the  earth  as  preeminently  a  Christian  na- 
tion. And  this  it  has  ever  striven  to  be,  though,  like  Laocoon,  amidst  the 
awful  and  ever  tightening  serpent  folds  of  Demagogism,  Anarchism,  and  un- 
regulated immigration,  with  its  consequent  evils  of  Sabbath  desecration  and 
the  saloon  power.  Methodism  adapts  herself  equally  to  all  classes  by  her 
doctrinal  freedom,  her  missionary  spirit,  and  her  itinerant  system.  She  is 
equally  suited  to  the  work  of  ministering  to  the  older  sections  of  our 
country,  and  also  to  that  of  going  before  the  advancing  and  ever  enlarging 
communities  which  are  filling  up  the  great  West.  An  ecclesiastical  organ- 
ization which,  during  one  short  century,  has  been  able  to  so  adjust  itself 
to  this  democratic  new  world  as  to  bring  into  its  communion  some  five  or 
six  millions  of  people  from  all  grades  of  society,  and  to  furnish  Presidents, 
Cabinet  officers.  Senators,  Congressmen,  Governors,  and  Judges  to  the 
people,  has  thereby  demonstrated  its  peculiar  fitness  to  become,  in  the  high- 
est spiritual  sense,  a  national  Church.  Both  sections  of  Methodism  have, 
since  the  division  of  1844,  shown  a  vitality  which  could  only  have  resulted 
from  the  indwelling  spirit  of  God ;  and,  although  there  have  been  occasional 
instances  of  friction,  they  have  in  the  main  worked  together  to  the  com- 
mon end  of  building  up  the  moral  and  religious  life  of  the  nation.  You, 
with  characteristic  faith  and  daring,  have  astonished  the  Christian  world  by 
your  proposed  $20,000,000  twentieth  century  thank-oflfering,  which  you  are 
even  now  bringing  to  a  successful  completion ;  while  we  have  already  raised 
a  similar  offering,  for  education  alone,  amounting  to  more  than  $2,000,000, 
about  $1,500,000  of  which  has  already  been  paid.  With  a  noble  zeal  for  the 
helpless  African  population  of  the  South,  you  have,  for  the  past  thirty-five 
years,  been  pouring  your  millions  into  that  section  for  the  evangelization 
and  education  of  the  negroes.  We,  in  our  poverty,  and  laboring  under 
peculiar  disabilities,  have  been  also  doing  what  we  could  in  the  same  field. 
Side  by  side  we  are  vying  with  you  in  the  work  of  Western  Church  ex- 
tension, while  shoulder  to  shoulder  and  heart  to  heart  we  are  working  with 
you  to  defend  the  Christian  Sabbath,  to  break  the  saloon  power,  and  to 
maintain  and  enlarge  Christian  education. 

The  best  results  of  an  educated  ministry  are  not  to  be  found  in  the 
eloquent  and  learned  exposition  of  the  great  truths  of  theology  so  much  as 
in  the  Christian  education  of  the  whole  people.  A  Gospel  which  does  not 
stimulate  the  intellect  is  something  less  than  the  pure  Gospel  of  the  Son  of 
God.  Jesus  said  to  Pilate,  as  He  still  says  to  all  those  who  are  in  au- 
thority :  "  To  this  end  was  I  born,  and  for  this  cause  came  I  into  the  world 
that  I  might  bear  witness  to  the  truth."  Again  he  said :  "  Ye  shall  know 
the  truth  and  the  truth  shall  make  you  free."  It  is  but  a  poor  conception 
of  the  Gospel  to  suppose  that  it  is  ministered  merely  to  save  the  people 

20 


from  their  sins.  This  is  only  its  negative  side.  It  fails  in  its  mission  unless 
it  also  saves  them  to  the  truth.  We  have  too  long  acquiesced  in  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Mystics,  that  religion  is  an  inward  and  supermental  condition 
by  which  God  and  the  higher  realities  are  known  independently  of  the 
ordinary  truth-getting  processes — something  which  can  be  prayed  into  a 
man  and  kept  in  him  only  by  a  diligent  use  of  what  we  are  wont  to  call 
"  the  means  of  grace,"  such  as  psalm  singing,  public  and  private  prayers, 
and  the  sacraments.  Undoubtedly  these  things  have  their  divinely  ap- 
pointed place  to  fill,  but  if  left  to  themselves,  however  diligently  they  may 
be  used,  they  are  more  than  likely  to  produce  a  superficial  and  fanatical 
type  of  piety.  A  ministry  modeled  after  the  Wesleyan  type,  and  seeking  to 
adjust  itself  to  the  twentieth  century  civilization,  can  as  poorly  afford  to 
limit  itself  to  this  conception  of  grace  as  it  could  to  that  of  the  high  church- 
man or  the  Romanist.  <r 

Never  in  the  history  of  any  nation  has  there  been  such  an  intellectual 
awakening  as  we  are  now  witnessing  in  this  country.  The  millions  which, 
without  stint,  our  people  are  pouring  into  our  schools,  both  by  taxation  and 
by  voluntary  offerings,  are  an  eloquent  witness  to  the  settled  purpose  of 
this  nation  to  educate  itself.  Somehow  the  civilized  portion  of  the  race 
has  at  last  made  up  its  mind  that  the  shackles  of  ignorance  and  supersti- 
tion shall  be  broken  and  that  all  shall  have  the  opportunity  to  develop 
their  intellectual  powers  and  prepare  themselves  to  make  use  of  the  whole 
circle  of  divinely-given,  scientifically-tested  truth.  One  week  from  last 
Sabbath  I  stood  in  front  of  the  Mormon  Temple  in  Salt  Lake  City  talking 
with  a  Mormon.  He  was  an  Englishman,  and  was,  while  yet  a  youth,  con- 
verted to  the  faith  by  a  Mormon  song.  He  expressed  his  unwavering  be- 
lief in  Joseph  Smith  and  in  the  miraculous  origin  of  the  Book  of  Mormon. 
He  stated  that  this  same  prophet  had,  before  his  death,  by  the  aid  of  the 
Urim  and  Thummim  miraculously  supplied  him,  translated  some  very 
ancient  Egyptian  writings  which  he  had  found  on  a  piece  of  polypus  (!) 
wrapped  around  a  mummy,  that  this  writing  was  right  in  line  with  the 
teachings  of  the  Book  of  Mormon,  and  that  there  was  plenty  more  of  the 
same  yet  untranslated.  What  answer  could  be  made  to  such  an  argument 
from  a  man  who  had  never  learned  to  read  and  write  his  mother  tongue? 
There  are  more  than  200,000  people  who  are  dominated  in  all  they  think 
and  do  with  reference  to  time  and  to  eternity  by  this  teaching.  Their 
apostles  and  prophets  are  now  busily  engaged,  throughout  this  land  and 
foreign  lands,  making  converts  amongst  the  ignorant.  Last  February  I  saw 
in  the  temple  of  the  Virgin  of  Guadaloupe,  near  the  City  of  Mexico,  an 
Indian  blanket  on  which  was  depicted  a  rude  image  of  a  Mexican  virgin 
hung  up  as  an  object  of  veneration.  When  Spain  sought  to  follow  up  the 
conquest  of  Cortez  by  converting  the  natives,  she  found  that  they  would 
have  nothing  to  do  with  the  religion  of  their  conquerors.  One  day,  on  the 
spot  where  the  Cathedral  now  stands,  it  is  said  that  the  Virgin  Mary  ap- 
peared to  a  humble  Indian  and  made  him  carry  his  blanket  full  of  flowers 
to  a  neighboring  priest  in  proof  of  her  appearance.  When  he  opened  his 
blanket  before  the  priest,  lo  I  the  flowers  had  disappeared  and  the  Virgin's 
image,  in  the  form  of  the  Indian  maiden,  had  taken  their  place.     All  this 


was  reported  to  the  Pope,  who  sent  a  commission  of  learned  cardinals  and 
others  across  the  ocean  to  examine  into  the  matter.  Their  report  con- 
vinced His  Holiness,  and  he  sent  back  his  decision,  which  is  written  on  the 
Cathedral  wall  underneath  the  picture  on  the  blanket,  as  follows :  "  The 
Lord  hath  not  wrought  so  great  a  miracle  for  any  nation."  From  this  the 
nation  became  converted  and  now,  after  nearly  four  centuries,  is  still  wholly 
given  up  to  the  worship  of  our  Lady  of  Guadaloupe.  Nearly  10,000,000 
native  Mexicans,  scarcely  any  of  whom  can  read  and  write,  live,  move,  and 
have  their  being  around  the  nucleus  of  this  fictitious  event  which  has  no 
support  from  either  science  or  revelation.  We  lightly  turn  from  these  things 
as  absurd  superstitions,  which  can  not  much  longer  withstand  the  advancing 
influence  of  the  light ;  but  we  forget  that  perhaps  nine-tenths  of  the  race, 
whether  Christian  or  pagan,  have  not  yet  reached  that  degree  of  mental 
advancement  which  would  enable  them  to  verify  the  basal  facts  of  life, 
and  thus  stand  on  a  solid  foundation  of  truth  from  which  they  could  not 
be  shaken  by  any  "  wind  of  doctrine."  Let  unscrupulous  leaders  arise,  mak- 
ing the  most  unreasonable  and  unscriptural  claims,  such  as  those  of  the 
Spiritualist,  the  Christian  Scientist,  the  Theosophist,  the  Socialist,  the  An- 
archist, backing  these  by  unblushing  assumptions  or  fiery  oratory,  and  there 
will  be  many  to  blindly  follow  these  blind  guides. 

No  class  of  men  is  more  interested  than  the  Christian  ministry  in  those 
measures  by  which  it  is  proposed  to  banish  illiteracy  and  substitute  the  best 
possible  culture  for  the  individual.  Matthew  Arnold,  when  minister  of 
education  for  England,  said  that  the  highest  form  of  culture  was  an  ac- 
quaintance with  the  best  thoughts  of  the  best  minds  of  all  ages,  and  that 
these  were  to  be  found  in  the  world's  best  literature ;  but  that  the  best  of  all 
the  productions  comprising  this  literature  were  to  be  found  in  the  Bible. 
For  this  reason  he  strongly  urged  that  the  Bible  should  be  taught  in  the 
common  schools  of  England.  England  has  heeded  the  advice  of  her  great 
minister,  and  her  children  are  slowly  but  surely  being  trained  by  the  truths 
of  this  Book  of  books.  With  the  American  nation  this  is  not  the  case.  The 
ignorance  of  the  average  American  child  as  to  the  Bible  is  an  evil  for 
which  the  Church  is  responsible :  and  she  is  none  the  less  responsible  for 
the  rapidly  increasing  secularization  of  education  in  our  colleges  and  uni- 
versities. The  American  people  will,  by  every  token,  be  an  educated  peo- 
ple. Illiteracy  must  go.  But  if  materialism  and  skepticism,  the  inevitable 
results  of  secularism  in  education,  are  to  take  its  place,  then,  too,  some- 
thing else  must  go  out  of  the  life  of  the  nation.  And  when  the  faith  of  our 
fathers  shall  have  gone,  this  nation,  with  its  Christless  culture,  will  be 
where  cultured,  pagan  Greece  was  when  Christ  came. 

The  true  reason,  then,  for  an  educated  ministry  is  not  simply  to  arouse 
the  dormant  mind  to  a  sense  of  its  need  for  culture,  but  to  go  further  and 
influence  it  to  seek  the  only  true  culture — that  which  contains  the  leavening 
influence  of  Christianity.  The  time  has  been  in  the  history  of  this  country 
when  the  leaders  in  education  were  the  Christian  ministers,  and  when  the 
centers  of  learning  were  the  Christian  colleges.  All  this  is  being  changed.  Per- 
haps there  is  justice  in  the  criticism  we  so  often  hear  in  these  days,  that  for- 
merly our  education  was  too  much  dominated  by  the  Church ;  that  no  col- 


lege  was  supposed  to  be  properly  manned  without  a  Christian  minister  for  its 
president ;  that  every  institution  of  note  was  a  center  of  sectarian  influence, 
and  that  for  a  member  of  one  Church  to  educate  his  children  in  the  college 
of  another  was  to  expose  them  to  the  danger  of  being  inoculated  with  the 
peculiar  beliefs  of  that  other.  And  yet  if  we  consent  to  the  secular  view, 
that  we  must  withdraw  all  Christian  influences  from  our  institutions  in 
order  to  relieve  them  of  the  evils  of  sectarianism,  are  we  not  bringing  on 
ourselves  a  far  greater  evil  than  the  one  we  seek  to  avoid?  The  great  en- 
dowments and  large  government  appropriations  of  our  day  are  being  given 
with  the  implied,  if  not  expressed,  understanding  that  the  institutions  en- 
riched by  them  shall  be  kept  free  from  all  sectarian  influences.  This  means 
that,  as  Christian  work  is  now  being  carried  on,  they  shall  be  kept  free  from 
any  direct  Christianizing  influences.  We  have  hardly  yet  come  to  where 
we  can  appreciate  the  extent  of  the  privation  this  is  working  in  our  educa- 
tional system.  Our  national  system  of  education  is  rapidly  becoming,  not 
antichristian,  but  unchristian,  and  this  merely  because  those  who  are  com- 
ing to  control  it  are,  from  what  seems  to  them  good  reasons,  withholding 
from  it  all  direct  and  aggressive  Christian  influence.  Can  we  as  Christian 
ministers  fulfil  our  obligations  by  ignoring  these  things  and  confining  our- 
selves to  what  some  are  pleased  to  call  the  "  legitimate  work  "  of  the  min- 
istry— that  of  calling  sinners  to  repentance  and  of  keeping  up  the  ordinances 
and  social  work  of  the  Church  ?  Though  we  shall  succeed  in  bringing  large 
numbers  of  young  people  into  the  Church  by  so  doing,  yet  have  we  any 
assurance  that  the  educational  processes  through  which  they  would  then 
have  to  pass  in  their  preparation  for  after  life  would  not  undo  all  that  we 
may  have  done?  It  is  no  solution  of  our  difficulties  to  say  that  our  Churches 
are  becoming  ineffective  because  most  of  their  members  have  been  taken 
in  in  an  unconverted  state.  We  can  not  prove  this.  It  is  more  reasonable 
to  say  that  when  we  took  them  in  we  never  supposed  that  we  should,  or 
could,  do  anything  else  for  them,  besides  conversion ;  and  that  the  Church 
has  left  them  where  conversion  found  them. 

Thus,  while  such  institutions  as  this  great  Seminary  eloquently  testify 
to  the  purpose  of  American  Methodism  to  remove  the  reproach,  and  to 
overcome  the  perils,  of  an  uneducated  ministry,  let  us  not  underestimate  the 
value  of  this  work  to  the  cause  of  popular  education.  Let  the  Church  lay  to 
heart  the  national  necessity,  now  upon  us,  of  not  only  lifting  the  masses  out 
of  the  depths  of  ignorance  and  superstition,  but  also,  and  especially,  of 
taking  care  that  the  agencies  through  which  this  is  to  be  done,  from  the 
common  schools  to  the  universities,  shall  be  Christian. 


Real  Evangelism  and  Higher  Living 


CHARLES    F.   SITTERLY,  Ph.D.,  S.T.D., 
Madison,  N.  J. 


Mr.  President,  Fathers,  and  Brethren: 

WE  stand  to-day  at  the  end  of  the  first  generation  of  work  and  of 
workers  in  the  life  of  Drew  Theological  Seminary.    Founded  at 
a  most  auspicious  time  in  the  history  of  the  nation  and  of  the 
Church,  the  period  of  our  existence  thus  far  has  been  one  of 
unforced  yet  vigorous  growth,  until  Alma  Mater  stands  to-day  confessedly 
in  the  foremost  rank  of  evangelical  schools  of  theology. 

The  celebration  of  the  first  centennial  of  American  Methodism  in  1866 
brought  to  the  birth  many  concrete  manifestations  of  the  abounding  life 
and  larger  outlook  of  the  Church,  and  among  them  not  the  least  important 
was  the  generous  provision  of  Mr.  Daniel  Drew,  of  New  York,  for  the 
beginning  of  this  school. 

Its  happy  location  in  a  cultured  community  contiguous  to  and  yet  just 
outside  the  metropolis  at  once  of  Methodism  and  of  the  nation ;  its  liberal 
endowment  with  a  landed  estate  unique  among  learned  institutions;  its 
gradual  development  of  a  funded  endowment,  under  masterly  hands,  and 
of  a  material  equipment,  aggregating  an  unmatched  collection  of  books 
and  a  group  of  splendidly  appointed  buildings,  and  beyond  all,  its  now 
living  membership  of  loyal  sons,  approximating  1,500  souls,  inclusive  of 
graduates,  undergraduates,  Fellovv's,  Faculty,  and  associates — all  these  go 
to  make  the  tangible  and  intangible  increment,  which,  added  to  the  original 
investment,  makes  the  Drew  of  to-day  inexpressibly  dear  to  us  and,  we 
believe,  to  our  Church. 

Nor  can  we  to-day  forget  that  glorious  cloud  of  witnesses,  who,  from 
the  battlements  of  bliss,  gaze  with  unfeigned  interest  upon  us.  From  the 
professor's  chair  and  the  instructor's  desk,  from  the  missionary's  com- 
pound and  the  frontiersman's  clearing,  from  the  Christian  pulpit  and  the 
Christian  parsonage,  from  the  prosperous  avenue  and  the  neglected  purlieu, 
from  stifling  slums  and  wind-swept  prairies,  from  African  jungles,  Korean 
abysses,  and  Armenian  martyrdoms,  from  city  palaces  and  country  parishes, 
they  have  ascended  bravely,  buoyantly,  and  all  too  soon  unto  their  Father 
and  ours,  unto  their  God  and  unto  our  God. 

Surely  it  is  not  unfitting  for  us  here  to-day  to  recall  the  souls  re- 
deemed from  death  and  the  myriad  of  sins  concealed,  the  churches  and 
schools  established  and  the  missions  founded  and  maintained,  the  con- 
ferences organized  and  the  institutions  developed,  the  journals  edited  and 
the  books  written,  the  sermons  preached  and  the  lectures  read,  the  youth 

25 


rescued  and  the  lost  found,  the  children  baptized  and  the  aged  comforted, 
the  stalwart  steadied  and  the  feeble  strengthened,  the  hands  and  the  minds 
and  the  hearts  and  the  spirits  edified  and  enriched  unto  life  eternal.  What 
workers  and  what  works  are  these,  my  brethren !  Surely,  the  past  at  least 
is  indeed  secure !  Blessed  beyond  compute  in  her  first  President  and  first 
Faculty  and  first  Board  of  Trustees,  we  must  all  keenly  realize  the  severe 
and  lofty  standard  set  by  the  Fathers.  It  does  not  become  us  now  to  in- 
quire too  critically  concerning  their  sons  and  successors  of  to-day,  but 
fervently  to  express  the  hope  that  the  future  may  make  it  clear  that  these 
too  have  been  faithfully  engaged  in  doing  the  same  things  and  minding  the 
same  rule,  and  that  they  have  honestly  kept  the  faith  of  the  Fathers  un- 
sullied and  intact. 

I  have  said  that  the  epoch  of  Drew's  founding  was  propitious  in  rela- 
tion to  the  history  of  the  nation.  But  just  recovering  from  the  awful 
throes  of  civil  strife,  the  civic  conscience  and  consciousness  were  peculiarly 
susceptible  to  the  calls  and  claims  of  spiritual  things.  An  unwonted  spirit 
was  abroad  of  fraternity  and  humility  and  Christian  charity,  and  the  people 
turned  with  new  interest  to  the  preaching  and  the  practice  of  the  teachings 
of  the  Book. 

The  Methodists  as  well  as  others  wanted  ministers  of  wider  training 
and  abilities  more  marked  for  leadership,  and  the  rising  prosperity  of  the 
time  filled  their  hands  with  the  means  to  accomplish  the  end  desired,  and 
God  has  set  His  seal  as  knowing  them  that  are  His,  and  has  given  the 
Church  great  increase. 

But  now  we  are  fallen  upon  a  new  age — we  have  turned  the  milestone 
of  a  new  century,  and  as  a  school  we  face  toward  the  future. 

Let  us  consider  the  path  before  us. 

It  is  claimed  by  many  that  the  new  age  is  dominated  by  a  new  spirit, 
and  one  all  its  own.  It  is  suggested  that  the  new  century  brings  with  it 
new  needs  which  new  methods  alone  can  satisfy.  It  is  even  seriously  stated 
that  a  new  Theology,  a  new  Exegesis,  a  new  Creed  should  be  forthcoming, 
while  a  new  Bible,  a  new  Christ,  and  a  new  God  are  confidently  heralded  as 
even  now  at  the  doors. 

That  the  temper  of  the  time  has  a  character  in  some  respects  peculiar 
to  itself  is  clearly  manifest;  that  the  world  problem  of  the  new  century, 
and  the  national  outlook  as  well,  presents  a  face  hitherto  not  known  is 
equally  clear;  and  it  may  be  freely  conceded  that  in  matters  of  church 
polity  and  ecclesiastical  administration  some  changes  for  the  better  may  be 
eflfected,  and  even  that,  in  some  respects,  a  certain  transposition  and  change 
of  relations  in  the  factors  of  creedal  and  doctrinal  equations  in  theology  are 
possible.  But  that  men  should  boldly  deny  that  they  have  Adam  "  to  their 
father,"  that  they  should  openly  reject  the  Deity  of  God's  Son,  that  they 
should  repudiate  the  unique  inspiration  and  inerrancy  of  the  Holy  Bible, 
is  to  proclaim  progress  in  a  direction  too  new  to  deserve  applause  and 
entirely  too  unwarranted  to  merit  following.  Moreover,  it  is  plain  to  every 
historical  student  that  these  so-called  novelties  are  by  no  means  so  new — 
in  almost  every  case  they  are  a  recrudescence  of  the  vagaries  and  heresies 
of  the   earliest   Christian   age.     They  are   the  direct   descendants  of  the 

26 


Gnostics  and  the  Docetae ;  of  the  Corinthians  and  the  Chiliasts ;  of  the 
Nomians  and  the  Antinomians ;  which  James  and  Peter  and  John  and  Paul 
fought  and  discomfited  at  the  Council  of  Jerusalem,  and  in  the  conference  at 
Antioch,  and  the  beastly  arenas  of  Ephesus,  and  on  the  Areopagus  of 
Athens,  and  in  the  market  places  of  Corinth,  and  throughout  the  Jewish 
ghettos,  and  Praetorian  barracks,  and  imperial  palaces,  and  law  courts  of 
Rome.  Just  as  it  has  long  been  known  in  the  realm  of  textual  criticism 
that  the  widest  deflections  in  the  readings  of  the  manuscripts  arose  in  the 
making  of  the  earliest  copies,  so  it  is  coming  to  be  recognized  in  the  matter 
of  Christian  polity  and  Christian  doctrine  that  the  rankest  heresies  of 
Christian  history  sprang  from  the  seed  sown  broadcast  over  the  newly 
planted  fields,  by  the  enemy  of  all  good  during  the  very  first  darkness 
which  succeeded  the  days  of  the  Son  of  Man.  But  the  Christian  writings 
and  the  Christian  Church  rose  triumphant  and  unspoiled,  and  the  method 
which  the  early  saints  employed  in  their  defense  and  diffusion  may  well 
engage  the  emulation  of  their  successors  of  to-day.  No  man  doubts  now, 
that  the  sole  solution  of  the  slavery  question,  to  cite  a  manifest  case  in 
point,  was  prescribed  in  the  writings  of  the  New  Testament,  though  it 
took  nearly  two  millenniums  of  years  to  see  it  there,  and  it  is  just  as  true 
that  those  same  writings  present  the  only  permanent  answer  to  the  woman 
question  and  the  labor  question  and  the  social  question  of  our  time,  and 
the  preachers  of  our  time  can  only  meet  and  master  these  problems  by 
following  closely  the  footsteps  of  the  holy  prophets  and  apostles,  and  in 
no  other  way.     Apostolic  successors  will  always  reap  apostolic  success. 

A  return,  then,  to  real  Evangelism  and  to  higher  living  must  take  place 
in  the  ministry  and  membership  of  the  Christian  Church  before  this  age 
of  sin  and  of  doubt  and  of  hate  can  become  an  age  of  faith  and  of  hope 
and  of  love. 

This  is  not  a  new  word — it  is  the  old  word  which  ye  had  from  the  be- 
ginning. This  is  not  an  original  message — it  is  the  original  message  which 
ye  received  from  the  Master.  This  is  not  a  new  Gospel,  suited  to  a  new 
age — it  is  the  eternal  Gospel,  suited  to  all  ages,  prepared  from  the  founda- 
tion of  the  world,  and  perennial  as  the  problem  of  human  depravity. 
Seth  and  Enoch  and  Noah  and  Abraham  and  Job  and  Jacob  and  Joseph  and 
Moses  and  Joshua  and  Samuel  and  Solomon  and  Josiah  and  the  greater 
prophets  and  the  lesser  prophets  (always  excluding  the  pseudo  prophets 
and  the  false  prophets)  these  all  preached  repentance,  wrought  righteous- 
ness, and  prophesied  salvation,  and  as  long  as  they  practised  what  they 
preached  they  possessed  an  earnest  of  what  they  prophesied,  and  the  name 
of  the  Lord  was  revealed  and  all  flesh  saw  it  together.  But  just  so  far 
as  they  deflected  from  this  standard,  whether  patriarch  or  priest  or  prophet 
or  people,  they  departed  from  the  presence  and  the  favor  of  Jehovah,  and 
confusion  came  upon  them. 

The  doings  and  the  teachings  of  the  Son  of  David  but  declared  anew 
this  same  doctrine,  and  the  history  of  his  Church  from  the  beginning  until 
now  has  added  nothing  thereto. 

Most  happily  it  transpires  that  we  are  thinking  much  of  the  Wesleys  in 
these  days.     Now  it  must  occur  to  the  thoughtful  observer  that  the  dark- 

27 


ness  prevalent  in  England  and  in  the  English  Church  during  the  early- 
half  of  the  eighteenth  century  marked  the  epoch  as  one  of  doubt  and  of  sin 
extreme,  and  it  has  become  clear,  both  to  churchmen  and  to  statesmen  and 
historians  alike,  that  the  saviours  under  God  of  that  England  came  out 
of  the  house  of  Samuel  and  Susanna  of  Epworth. 

Did  the  Wesleys,  however,  evolve  a  new  theology?  Did  they 
proclaim  a  new  Gospel  and  propose  a  new  Bible?  Did  they  even 
give  large  or  special  prominence  to  the  building  of  a  new  Church? 
They  did  neither  nor  all  of  these  things.  In  the  scholastic  cloisters 
of  the  university  and  in  the  depraved  slums  of  the  city  and  prison 
of  Oxford,  in  the  spacious  mansions  and  crowded  cabins  of  Georgia,  in  the 
conventicle  of  Aldersgate  Street  and  the  Foundry  of  City  Road,  London, 
and  from  end  to  end  of  the  kingdom,  their  constant  and  only  business  was 
the  preaching  of  a  real  Evangelism  unto  sinners  and  higher  living  unto 
saints.  I  say  a  real  Evangelism  for  the  purpose  of  emphasizing  the  dis- 
tinguishing characteristic  of  their  message.  The  reality  and  awfulness  of 
man's  sin,  the  plain  declarations  and  the  terrors  of  God's  law,  the  doom 
and  eternal  damnation  of  unrepentant  sinners,  the  all  embracing  merits  of 
the  divine  atonement,  and  the  assurance  of  present  and  everlasting  salva- 
tion on  the  basis  of  unconditional  surrender — these  features  marked  the 
preaching  of  the  Wesleys  as  peculiarly  Evangelical  and  singularly  new  and 
startling  to  the  sinners  of  their  time;  while  for  those  who  were  called 
saints,  as  having  attained  unto  the  adoption  of  sons  (and  there  were  at 
least  as  many  as  7,000  left  in  Great  Britain,  even  in  their  time) ,  the  Wesleys 
proclaimed  the  possibility  and  privilege  of  endless  advancement  in  godli- 
ness, with  an  authority  and  an  appeal,  which,  though  distinctly  Scriptural, 
came  as  a  new  revelation  to  the  modern  Church. 

The  world's  reception  of  the  message  of  these  men  and  the  response  of 
the  Church  to  their  call  for  higher  living  is  the  glory  under  God,  in  the 
light  of  which  we  walk  to-day.  And  to  this  selfsame  message  of  a  real 
Evangelism  and  this  apostolic  call  unto  higher  living  we,  my  brethren,  the 
sons  of  the  Wesleys  and  successors  of  the  apostles,  should  pledge  our- 
selves to-day  and  give  ourselves  anew  with  a  flaming  zeal  and  a  holy  en- 
thusiasm which  shall  impress  our  age  as  new  because  it  is  so  splendidly  old. 

There  is  a  deal  of  superficial  Evangelism  in  vogue  and  a  dearth  of 
downright  honesty  in  dealing  with  the  eternal  destinies  of  men  that  is 
quite  sufficient  answer  to  those  who  inquire  concerning  the  Church's  lack  of 
power  in  our  day. 

The  world  has  never  paid  hearty  heed  to  half-hearted  calls  for  its 
capitulation.  In  this  it  has  done  both  itself  and  the  Gospel  great  credit. 
The  prophet  who  timidly  tones  down  the  "  thus  saith  Jehovah,"  and  de- 
clares that  the  "  vengeance  of  our  God  "  and  "  the  wrath  of  the  Lamb  "  are 
outworn  and  unauthorized  phrases,  may  make  lukewarm  friends  of  the 
Mammon  of  unrighteousness,  but  they  know  as  well  as  he  that  such  com- 
pounding will  never  secure  them  clear  titles  to  everlasting  habitations. 
What  sinful  souls  have  always  heard  and  will  always  receive  with  out- 
ward respect  and  inward  conviction  is  the  foursquare  proclamation  of 
God's  hatred  and  horror  of  sin  and  His  complete  provision  for  the  re- 

28 


demption  of  the  sinner,  on  the  only  grounds  of  mutual  integrity  and  per- 
manent peace.  But  any  lack  or  laxity  in  the  utterances  of  the  pulpit  along 
these  lines  has  its  true  origin  in  the  lower  standards  of  living  which  prevail 
among  the  preachers. 

My  brethren,  I  bring  no  railing  accusation ;  I  voice  no  word  of  thought- 
less censure,  but  it  is  the  clearest  commonplace  to  observe  that  the  lust  of 
luxury  and  the  tendency  to  softness  which  are  of  the  world  are  not  un- 
known among  us. 

Plain  living  is  not  alone  essential  to  high  thinking,  but  to  lofty  living 
as  well.  The  softness  which  springs  from  prosperity  and  prominence  is 
very  seductive  and  utterly  subversive  of  moral  heroism  and  high  leadership. 

Higher  living,  severer  self-pruning,  holier,  because  more  complete  de- 
votion to  the  Christian  ideal,  piety  without  piousness,  sanctity  without 
sanctimoniousness,  consecration  without  cant — this  is  the  ever  new  and  the 
only  living  way  to  win  and  sway  the  hearts  of  men. 

The  younger  men  saw  this  vision  at  their  Cleveland  convention  four 
years  ago,  and  it  is  probable  that  the  older  men  will  dream  the  same 
dream  in  the  selfsame  city  this  very  moon. 

They  voiced  the  first  part  of  the  Church's  call  in  their  faith  compelling 
slogan,  "  The  Evangelism  of  the  world  in  the  present  generation,"  and  these 
must  supplement  and  make  it  possible  of  fulfilment  by  this  added  war  cry, 
"  The  utter  consecration  of  the  Church  now  and  forever  to  the  mind  and 
the  mission  of  her  Master."  Or,  as  most  beautifully  stated  in  the  appeal 
of  the  Ephesian  presbyter  of  the  first  century,  "  Beloved,  he  that  saith  he 
abideth  in  Him  ought  himself  also  so  to  walk  even  as  He  walked,"  and 
"  if  He  laid  down  His  life  for  us,  we  ought  also  to  lay  down  our  lives  for 
the  brethren." 

And  now,  brethren,  with  the  wide  world  before  us  as  one  parish  for 
our  preaching,  with  its  weary  inhabitants  and  crumbling  habitations  crying 
aloud  for  deliverance,  let  us  take  anew  this  age-given  watchword  as  our 
faces  front  the  future : 

For  the  world  a  real  evangelisirv 
And  higher  living  for  ourselves. 


I  Seminary  LiV,?.'?,mi 


1    1012  01354  8138 


